Falling bolster for lumber-trucks.



No. 831,682. PATENTED SEPT. 25, 1906. F. M. RATTENBURY 61: A. F. GRIFFITHS.

FALLING BOLSTER FOR LUMBER TRUCKS! APPLICATION FILED DEO.26,1905.

miwf L P WITNESSES:

ATTORNEY T STALSLEALIENT FFICE.

FRANCIS MAW'SON RATTENBURY AND ALBERT FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, OF VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA.

FALLING BOLSTER FOR LUMBER-TRUCKS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 25, 1906.

Application filed December 26, 1905. Serial No; 293,371-

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, FRANCIS MAwsoN RATTENBURY and ALBERT FRANoIs GRIF FITHS, citizens of the Dominion of Canada, residing at the city of Victoria, in the Province of British Columbia, Canada, have invented new and useful Improvements in a Falling Bolster for Lumber-Trucks, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improved means for unloading lumber from a twowheeled truck such as is used round a sawmill or timber-yard.

In present practice when a truck is loaded with lumber it must either be unloaded piece by piece or one end of the load is rested on a trestle and the other end is lifted off the truck by means of a lumber-jack to permit of a trestle being placed to support the load at that end while the truck is withdrawn.

Our invention is designed to enable the entire load of the truck to be deposited on trestles or supports without the necessity of using a lumber-jack or similar device. V e attain this result by providing at each end of the truck a falling bolster, upon which the load is placed, which bolsters may conveniently be withdrawn or permitted to fall away when it is desired to deposit the load upon trestles 01' supports.

Although especially designed for the unloading of lumber, the device is equally applicable to the unloadin of metal rails or girders or any material of a like character which may be sufiiciently rigid to be deposited on supports.

The preferred construction which we adopt is fully described in the following specification, reference being made to the drawings which accompany it, Figure 1 being a side elevation of the truck with its load in position over the trestles; Fig. 2, a similar view showing one bolster withdrawn and the load deposited on the trestles; Figs. 3 and 4, enlarged details showing a bolster in end elevation and plan and a means by which the bolster may be retained in place when in use and released when it is desired to deposit the load, and Fig. 5 an alternative means for retaining and releasing the bolster. y

In the drawings, 2 represents the framework of a two-wheeled truck such as is used for the conveyance of lumber in a sawmill or timber-yard, 3 the load, and 4 the trestles or supports upon which it is desired to deposit the lumber. h

At each end of the truck and extending across its width is a bolster 5 in the form of a roller. These bolsters may be secured in position by any approved means which will facilitate their ready release.

Figs. 3 and 5 show a preferred means of securing and releasing the bolsters, in which a hook or dog 6 is pivotally connected to the frame of the truck adjacent to each end of each bolster and having bent ends which may be inserted in a hole 11 in the ends of the roller-bolster. These will securely hold the rollers while the load is on them and may be withdrawn readily to free the rollers and permit them to roll and one or the other of them to fall away over the end of the truck, as indicated in dotand-dash lines in Fig. 1.

In the operation of the device the truck, with its load, is run between the supports upon which it is desired to deposit it, and the wheels of the truck being scutched the dogs are withdrawn, when the load may be rolled a short distance endwise one way or the other until the roller at the end of the truck toward which the load is pushed falls over the end of the truck and the load is deposited upon the We do not desire to be confined to the particular method shown of securing the rollers in position at the ends of the truck, although we believe that the manner shown is the simplest and most effective, as the rollers will be securely held against movement and the load will be sustained, while when the dogs are withdrawn a very slight end movement will cause one roller to drop over the end of the truck and deposit the load.

In the modification illustrated in Fig. 5 a short length of chain 7 is connected to a stud S in each end of the roller and the chain is secured to the frame of the truck at 9,

When the bolsters are in place on the ends of the trucks, the chains pass round a stud or pin 10, as shown, and when it is desired to deposit the load the chain is released from the pin 10 and the rollers are free to move over the ends of the truck. With this arrangement the rollers are connected to the truck and will always be at hand when required.

trestles, as indicated in Fig. 2 of the draw- Having now particularly described our in vention and the manner of its operation, we declare that what we claim as new, and desire to be protected in by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a device of the class described, the combination with a two-wheeledtruck, of bolsters at each end of the truck-frame upon which the load is designed to rest, which bolsters may be withdrawn from between the truck-frame and the load, thereby depositing the load.

2. In a device of the class described, the combination with a two-wheeled truck, of a roller at each end forming bolsters upon which the load rests, and means for securing such rollers inposition on the truck which securing means may be Withdrawn when it is desired to deposit the load.

3. In a device of the class described, the combination with a two-wheeled truck, of rollers at each end of the truck-frame forming bolsters upon which the load rests, means for securing said rollers in position on the truck, such means comprising hook or dog members flexibly secured to the truck-frame,

the hook members of which dogs are designed to be inserted in the ends of the rollers.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FRANCIS MAWSON RATTENBURY ALBERT FRANCIS GRIFFITHS.

- Witnesses:

C. A. HOLLAND, A. R. WOLFENDER. 

